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The Name of the Lord is

a strong tower

Welcome to "From Bitter Waters to Sweet"

As I walked the streets of my small midwest town praying for the people and the churches of the town, the words came to me, "Make bitter waters sweet."Those words made no sense at the time.Surely if those words actually came from God they weren't about me. I, the pastor's wife, had a life that other women in my church envied.Shortly after that, my life fell apart and the bitterness that lurked beneath the surface came to the top.But God did not leave me there. Just as He can make crooked paths straight, raise valleys, and lower mountains, so also could He make bitter waters sweet.This blog contains bits and pieces and large chunks of my ongoing journey from bitter waters to sweet.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

New Calvinism is an intricate and elusive intellectual puzzle to me, far removed from the simplicity of the Gospel. It is not traditional Calvinism and has it's beginnings in the 20th century.

And from what I gather, so far, New Calvinism seems to be a reaction against an earlier move in Christianity. I find this to be very interesting since new Calvinists use the ESV translation as other groups use the King James version. And the ESV is a reactionary translation against the TNIV and I have been very concerned about men holding up and practically worshiping a translation that's a reaction against another. How objective is a reaction?

So I keep working, slowly but surely, towards an understanding of this new doctrine that is greatly troubling modern Christendom and the world.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

I was commenting on another blog (TWW) and met a fellow, Paul Dohse, who said he would dump everything he knows about Neo-Calvinism in the lap of anyone who emailed him.

I told him that five years of research would over whelm me and that what I really needed was Neo-Calvinism for Dummies.

So he threw something together for me. It is very basic and starts near the beginning of how Neo-Calvinism got started. One of the reasons I am paying attention to Paul is because Cindy Kunsman featured his book on her blog.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

I went to youtube to find some sort of uplifting video to share after my particularly negative previous post. I was actually looking for one in particular that goes through and lists the negative things historic men have said against women through the ages and then God's response in His word set to music.

It was an uplifting video even though it is honest about misogyny through the ages.

Well, I couldn't find it.

So, instead, I'm going to post a link to Cheryl's testimony of the opposition against her ministry, not by men, but by a woman who is misogynous (yes, they exist). It's sad to see the lengths people will go to oppose women. But it is also good to see the truth triumph in the end.

You know, I usually don't doubt whether a person is an actual Christian or not. Like, say, Mark Driscoll. This man upsets me. Often. But I still believe that he loves Jesus. I don't question his salvation.

Recently I've come across a couple links by men who, straight up, hate women and aren't afraid to show it.

WARNING: Don't go to those links if they will trigger you.

I only link them as proof that a person can be this deceived and actually believe that they are okay with God and that God agrees with their misogyny and hatred.

It's reading things like this (which I don't do often and for good reason) that makes me really wonder if a person has actually given their hearts to Jesus. Because, you see, there is nothing in what they say that represents the Jesus spoken of in the Gospels. It seems that the only thing the Christian Religion is to them is a means by which to add emphasis to their practice of hating people out loud.

You might think that what these men say would enrage me. It really doesn't. Not because shocked and angry aren't appropriate responses. No, rather, I'm concerned for their very souls that are at war within them. I'm concerned about the deception that causes them to rage in the darkness. I'm concerned about the brokenness and deep bitterness in their hearts that requires that they find a scapegoat (women) to rail against. It makes me sad for them to see the depths to which they have fallen. If they actually do make it into heaven, I don't think that they would be comfortable there.

Again, follow these links only if you can go there without their words getting under your skin. And if you do follow them, keep in mind that these men heap judgement upon themselves because, by the measure they judge others, they, themselves, will be judged. May they escape the pit that they have fallen into and find true freedom in the God they falsely represent.

(Edited to add: I realize that the subject matter of this post is extremely toxic and promotes hate, bitterness, and spiritual death. I hope to post something more uplifting soon. Just bear with me as I learn to glance at the deep and severe bitterness of broken and wounded men without feeding into it or returning curses upon those who spew out curses. It's a step we all have to take at one time or another. Some of us are ready for it. Others are not and must heal some more before they can deal with it.)

Edited again to state that the link, "A Woman's Place" was someone's colorful interpretation of what a certain hateful preacher said and not what an actual Christian said. So I removed it and replaced it with another link. Thanks for the heads up from Retha and the confirmation from Anne.

Also, I put this in the comment section to Retha, but decide to go ahead and put it here so people can link it directly. The blog itself is a good, though now inactive, blog. But what it talks about and some of the comments display this hatred and misogyny we see by those who profess to be Christian.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

But even though I get very cranky with him over many issues, I still know he's my brother in Christ and I have to remind myself that he's not evil incarnate. He'd just made many mistakes and is under a good deal of self-delusion.

Anyway, because I have to pull back and regroup and remind myself and my readers that Driscoll is not evil, I like to include critiques of him and/or his teaching by those who are either more objective than I, or have a better understanding of the Mars Hill culture through personal experience, or both.

That's why I had guest posts by WTH here and also why I'm linking this, a review of Driscoll's "Real Marriage" book by people who went to church at Mars Hill during the times Driscoll describes in the book. So here it is:

Monday, February 20, 2012

A quote so brilliant I wish I had come up with it. But, of course, I didn't. Nor can I take credit for discovering this quote. WTH did. So I'm going to link his post where he quotes the entire paragraph, with contains other insightful things. And WTH's post links the link to this comment so, if you care to, you can read the comment in its in entirety and see the blog from whence it came.

"What’s more disturbing to me than all of the bullying, name-calling and shaming, sadistic tactics employed by the church leadership is that so many seem to accept this as a proper way to act as church to one another. Where is the grace? Where is the offer to help the couple reconcile or part peacefully? There’s not even a hint of the old draconian “love the sinner, hate the sin” ethos. It’s more like “hate the sin, abuse the sinner and shame him back into conformity.”

Christian Pratt wants to know where the grace is. I can't answer that.

But I'll tell you what the evidence says about where Grace Driscoll is.

(Another quote from Piatt's post):

"...as senior pastor Mark Driscoll often proclaims from the pulpit, women are 'inferior weaker vessels.' Women, in their inferior state, can’t be expected to be held accountable in the same way as men, who always bear the burden of forced aggression. Period."

(Mara again. Having trouble making blogger behave and take away the white space behind the letters)

Grace is in a weakened and inferior position force upon her by the relentless bullying of her husband. Grace is nothing but a shell of herself, an obedient little doll who knows how to display her plastic, little smile and nod her submissive, little head on cue in order to prop up her husband's raging ego and to keep the charade up of "Happy couple, Happy family, Happy church" going indefinitely. She must do this so that they can pay the light bill and she can go to the gym so she can be, "Hot, hot, hot!" for the man who owns and dominates her.

I could be wrong about this, of course. But this is what most all of the evidence strongly points to.

Friday, February 17, 2012

There are times when we all need it. There are times when we are called upon to give it.

Protection is not gender specific even though groups like CBMW want to make it that way. My friend Marg from Australia has a good blog post on the danger of making "protection" a manhood specific quality rather than a personhood quality.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

But in addition to my regular blog list I'm building a links page that can get freakishly longer.

It is a work in progress and I'm not nearly done putting in all the links I want. But I've gotten a good start and wanted to go ahead and share it with people.

There are links on that page that never made it to the blog list, but not because they were not worthy. It was just a matter of my limited time or attention span or something else or something else, who knows.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

I've linked Sierra before and she's another one that I should just have in my blog roll. Or perhaps I should get busy with that link page I've mumbled about before.

Any way, before I get to the link, reading her post reminded me of another conversation I had with my son.

We were at the orientation for his college and some young Muslim girl made some sort of sign toward him that seemed positive and could have been a flirt. Neither of us were sure.

At least we think she was Muslim since she was dark complected and had her head covered with a scarf. On our way home from the orientation we were talking about it and it came up, why do (some) Muslim women cover their heads.

While I knew that I didn't have all the answers nor was I trying to say that this particular girl covered her head for this reason, the conversation did go in the direction of the modesty thing. So I mentioned where, in some places women are covered from head to toe, including face, because they are more or less held responsible for the sexual sins in men.

My son didn't like this. So I mentioned that in some countries women are even held responsible and punished for their own rapes.

The flash of fury in my son's eyes was one of the most rewarding things I saw that day. He could see the injustice of such things and was, in fact, incredulous that such attitudes towards women existed anywhere. It's in moments like these that I know that, as a parent, I'm not a total failure.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

And as the hits keep coming looking for Grace Driscoll's blog or juicy gossip on her affair, we'll take a moment to look at what these three different ones have in common. They have very good reasons for concern.

I would add that the internet has helped countless silenced women find their God-given voices.

Here is one of my favorite verses in the Psalms.

Psalm 68:11 The Lord gives the command; The women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host:

Could it be that, besides referring to the time it was written, that this verse could also be looking forward to this day when a great host of women are actually given the opportunity to proclaim good tiding through the power of technology?

I've heard grumblings from some men that are not happy about this new found freedom that women have. I've heard grumbling and shamings from certain men who don't want women to have so much freedom. These men fear the freedom of their women. Otherwise, why would thy work so hard to bring women under the bondage of religions and legalism?

Yet, God has called us to freedom.

And one of the good tidings that women are proclaiming is:

GOD DOES NOT FAVOR MEN OVER WOMEN. God is not the author of the injustices that certain men have done against women in His name. The hierarchy that certain men have been enforcing over women is based in the traditions of men and have nothing to do with the heart of God.

This is good news. These are good tidings of great joy.

When some men make it their ministry and life work to tell women to sit down and shut up in church or anywhere, they are NOT speaking with authority from God. They are bullying from their own broken and deceitful hearts. And we don't have to listen to them. The voice of a stranger, we shall not follow (John 10:5). We will follow the voice of the Shepherd who, for freedom's sake, set us free. (Gal 5:1)

One of the reasons we are fighting gender discrimination is because it is being exported by men like Piper and Driscoll. Other countries have enough problems without the True Gospel being contaminated and turned into something else, a gender gospel.